Mother of Microfinance

Two weeks ago, I made a visit to Ahmedabad, to interview Ela Bhatt, the founder of SEWA, the Self Employed Women's Association. Ela Ben is a beautiful, gentle woman, now in her 70s, who has empowered over a million women in the past 3 decades, by bringing them together, unionizing them, offering them microcredit, and giving them guidance on how to run their small enterprises.

Ela Ben (a form of respect, meaning sister Ela), who is known for her simple, cotton saris, is one of those rare creatures which can be classified as salt of the earth. We sat in her living room, with her grandchildren skittering by every few minutes, and talked about her life.

She came of age as India did, turning 14 the year that India celebrated its independence. She grew up in a family of lawyers, and because she had no brothers, the mantle fell to her to take up the practice. She completed her law degree, and then, using the teachings of Mahatma Ghandi, went to work with the poor, eventually finding her place amidst poor women, choosing to advocate for them.

While she has a gentle disposition, her mind is strong and lucid, and her movements are sprightly. At 75, she seems much younger, as if she's spent the last fifty years doing yoga and breathing pure oxygen. I towered over her; she is only about 5 feet tall. But she floored me with her wisdom.

I went to see her to find out her perspectives on the impact of microfinance, for our next issue of Microfinance Insights. But what I really wanted to know was her thoughts on women's political leadership (Ela Ben once served in India's upper house of Parliament) and if she thinks the divide between India's rich and poor will ever really change.

On the latter, she told me this:

"I am not very proud of my generation. We have left nothing for you. We are eating up the earth, exhausting all our resources, without still seeing a paradigm shift. We need to think afresh, the solution lies in decentralizing and localizing resources and power, particularly pertaining to decision making. We have to see that everyone has enough to eat, has access to primary health care and education and to ensure that, I follow the principle of 100 miles. The five primary needs, food, clothing, shelter, primary education and health care have to be made available to people within hundred miles of where they live. As soon as your agricultural produce or the products of your labor go farther than that, it is out of your reach. I am not saying we have to go back 50 years to make that change happen. Knowledge should flow like oceanic circles, with local and global components overlapping with each other. Knowledge and people must come closer, while being strongly rooted. Until that exchange happens, disparity will remain and all that we are going to be left with is hunger and violence."

Along with Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, and Mary Robinson, she is a member of the Council of Elders, the diplomatic group enlisted to mediate and advise on global problems.

For the full interview, please visit www.microfinanceinsights.com